U.S. boxing card falls apart for Cape Breton fighters

A pair of Cape Breton boxers were looking forward to a Friday night fight card in Minnesota as a way to hone their skills.

But it was not to be, after Ryan Rozicki and Taylor Ross, and their coach Brad Ross were told Thursday afternoon that the card in Duluth had been cancelled.

“It was cancelled because there was a couple of other boxing teams from other states that pulled the plug on them yesterday, apparently,” Brad Ross said. “So they were waiting until the last minute trying to match up some fights to salvage the card and they couldn’t get it done. They were down to like four fights.”

Ross said their flight tickets were non-refundable, so they headed to the airport in Halifax with the intention of going to Minnesota anyway to train and spar for a couple of days.

They were then told their flight had been delayed and there were no other options to get them to Minnesota before midnight. That’s when United Airlines offered to refund their tickets and they decided to make their way back to Sydney.

“I mean Taylor trained all summer for this, and so did Ryan, so it’s a real disappointment for us,” Brad Ross said.

Their attention will now turn to an amateur boxing showcase at Centre 200 on Sept. 22, which will be headlined by Rozicki, 19, the 2013 Canadian Golden Gloves champ and the Nova Scotia super heavyweight champ, and Ross, 16, the 2012 Ringside world champ and the 2013 Canadian Golden Gloves champ.